The handover’s specifics were not made clear.
According to an image made public by SNAI, Mac was dressed in a helmet, shorts, a bulletproof vest, and a T-shirt. He was being guarded by a number of police officers at an unidentified location.
The Ecuadorian will appear in federal court in Brooklyn on Monday, “pledging not guilty,” attorney Alexei Schacht emailed The Associated Press. He will next be held in an unspecified prison, Schacht continued.
After the United States provided a paper to Ecuador with guarantees for the 45-year-old criminal leader’s rights to be respected, the decision to extradite him was made.
Mac has been in charge of Los Choneros, a criminal organization that was founded in the 1990s, since 2020. According to April’s indictment, the group hired persons to purchase weapons and ammo in the United States and smuggle them into Ecuador. Mexican cartels would help bring cocaine into the United States. By violently attacking law officers, politicians, attorneys, and anybody else who stood in their way, the organizations collectively controlled important cocaine trafficking routes through Ecuador.
Mac broke out of a jail in Guayaquil where he was serving a 34-year sentence for murder, organized crime, and drug trafficking. A year and a half later, he was apprehended again on the central coast of the nation.
In his own nation, Mac has developed a cult following among the general population and other gang members. In 2023, while incarcerated, he published a video in which he addressed the Ecuadorian people while being accompanied by armed men. In prison, he also hosted parties where he had access to roosters for cockfighting fights and alcohol.
According to jail officials, Mac is the first Ecuadorian to be deported to the United States. Two additional drug traffickers from Ecuador were previously captured in Colombia and turned over to the United States.
